The product/version referred to in this article has been retired.
You can upgrade to the latest version free of charge (subject to terms and conditions) by visiting http://www.sophos.com/support/upgrades/. For a retirement schedule for all Sophos products, visit http://www.sophos.com/support/lifecycle/.
As shown on our Product Lifecycle page, support for the following products will end on 13 May 2011:
- Sophos Anti-Virus for Windows 7.x
- EM Library 1.3.x
- Enterprise Console 3.x
- Sophos Control Center 2.x
What will happen
Phase 1
As part of this retirement, notification messages will initially appear on machines running any of the following products:
- EM Library, including EM Library Console
- Enterprise Console 3
- Sophos Control Center 2
The desktop message will read:
Sophos Anti-Virus 7, EM Library and Sophos Control Center will be retired at the end of March 2011. You should upgrade computers running these products so that your network continues to be protected.
Messages will appear on all computers from the start of January 2011.
To turn off these messages and to learn more about the retirement, visit Sophos
support knowledgebase article 
.
The message in the main Sophos Anti-Virus User Interface will read:
Product retiring. Please see KBA .
Phase 2
The following desktop message will be shown on managed endpoints running Sophos Anti-Virus 7.6.21 (previous versions of Sophos Anti-Virus 7.6.x do not have the alert functionality):
Sophos Anti-Virus 7 will be retired at the end of March 2011.
Contact your systems administrator to let them know that they should upgrade to
Sophos Endpoint Security and Control
What to do
You must upgrade to a later version of the Sophos products.Version upgrades are always free.
How often are the notification messages going to appear?
- On machines running any of the following products: EM Library (including EM Library Console), Enterprise Console 3, Sophos Control Center 2:
- From the release of Sophos Anti-Virus v7.6.21 (24th November 2010): once per day
- On client machines/ end users:
- From the 10th January: once until the end of January
- From the 31st January: 4 times (once per week during Feb)
- From the 28th February: 4 times until the 11th March (i.e. twice as often as in Feb)
- From the 14th March onwards: every day
How to turn off the desktop message
Note: The registry value "EnableEndOfLifeMessaging" is set by default and is not to be edited
To turn the desktop messaging off locally on one computer you can create the following registry value:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sophos\SAVService\Application\ | REG_DWORD | DisableEndOfLifeMessaging
Set the value to 1.
The following methods can be used to turn off desktop messaging centrally:
Using Group Policy Object (GPO) to apply a registry change.
Create a new Sophos configuration file.
Use an existing Sophos configuration file.
Using Group Policy Object (GPO) to apply a registry change.
You can create a template to deploy the registry keys listed below using GPO.
* On 32-bit computers,
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sophos\SAVService\Application]
"DisableEndOfLifeMessaging"=dword:00000001
* On 64-bit computers,
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Sophos\SAVService\Application]
"DisableEndOfLifeMessaging"=dword:00000001
To reverse the changes so desktop messages are on, change the value:
"DisableEndOfLifeMessaging"=dword:00000000
The following Microsoft article contains information on registry changes and how to apply via Group Policy or System Policy:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310516
Create a new Sophos configuration file.
1. In Notepad or a similar text editor, open a new file and paste in the following text:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<config xmlns="http://www.sophos.com/EE/EESavConfiguration">
<!-- Custom install configuration for SAV2K/XP/2003 -->
<inst:install xmlns:inst="http://www.sophos.com/SAVXP/SavInstallConfiguration"
xmlns="http://www.sophos.com/SAVXP/SavInstallConfiguration">
<endOfLife>
<disableMessaging>true</disableMessaging>
</endOfLife>
</inst:install>
</config>
2. Save the file as savconf.xml into the savxp directory of the CID. This will usually be one of the following:
* If you are using EM Library:
\\SERVER\InterChk\ESXP\savxp
\\SERVER\InterChk\SAVSCFXP\savxp
* If you are using Sophos Update Manager*:
\\SERVER\SophosUpdate\CIDs\[serial number]\ESXP\savxp
\\SERVER\SophosUpdate\CIDs\[serial number]\SAVSCFXP\savxp
* Note: To find the full path to the version 7 subscription click View, Bootstrap Locations from the Sophos Enterprise Console menu
3. Use ConfigCID.exe to implement the changes you have made:
See Enterprise Console: using ConfigCID to implement XML configuration file changes for more guidance.
Once the change has been applied, any network computers updated or protected from the central installation will have the desktop messaging off.
Reversing the change
To reverse the change repeat the procedure and in step 1 change the <disableMessaging> element to:
<disableMessaging>false</disableMessaging>
Use an existing Sophos configuration file.
1. Find your savconf.xml file in your Central Installation Directory (CID).
2. Open the file savconf.xml in Notepad++ or an XML editor.
3. In the Format menu, disable 'Word Wrap'.
4. Scroll down to the bottom of the file. Just above the tag '</config>', copy and paste the following text:
<inst:install xmlns:inst="http://www.sophos.com/SAVXP/SavInstallConfiguration"
xmlns="http://www.sophos.com/SAVXP/SavInstallConfiguration">
<endOfLife>
<disableMessaging>true</disableMessaging>
</endOfLife>
</inst:install>
5. Save the savconf.xml file in the same location.
6. Use ConfigCID.exe to implement the changes you have made:
See Enterprise Console: using ConfigCID to implement XML configuration file changes for more guidance.
Once the change has been applied, any network computers updated or protected from the central installation will have the desktop messaging off.
Reversing the change
To reverse the change repeat the procedure and in step 4 change the <disableMessaging> element to:
<disableMessaging>false</disableMessaging>
How can I tell if the central change has been applied to the client?
The configuration file adds the following registry value if the end of life message is suppressed:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sophos\SAVService\Application\ | REG_DWORD | DisableEndOfLifeMessaging
The value should be set to 1.
Note: If you choose to edit the registry on a single system and then export the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sophos\SAVService\Application\, please be sure to remove the additional registry values under this key that are not being changed. Leaving these keys in the registry file may lead to unexpected behavior if the registry file is imported again after upgrading to Sophos Anti-Virus 9.x+